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Listen live to orcas and their soundscapeMon, 12 Mar 2012 20:31:57 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.1J pod calls in Haro Strait and on the shelfhttp://www.orcasound.net/wp/2012/02/17/j-pod-calls-in-haro-strait-and-on-the-shelf/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=j-pod-calls-in-haro-strait-and-on-the-shelf
http://www.orcasound.net/wp/2012/02/17/j-pod-calls-in-haro-strait-and-on-the-shelf/#commentsFri, 17 Feb 2012 10:27:08 +0000http://www.orcasound.net/wp/?p=467Below are a bunch of southern resident killer whale calls that were just auto-detected at the Orcasound hydrophones (~5km north of Lime Kiln). They include S1, S2, and S10 calls. No calls have been detected yesterday or earlier today at any of the 5 locations in the Salish Sea Hydrophone Network, so these calls are most likely from J pod whales heading south in Haro Strait.

]]>http://www.orcasound.net/wp/2012/02/17/j-pod-calls-in-haro-strait-and-on-the-shelf/feed/0Endangered orcas in Haro Strait 18 hours after sonar usehttp://www.orcasound.net/wp/2012/02/08/endangered-orcas-in-haro-strait-18-hours-after-sonar-use/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=endangered-orcas-in-haro-strait-18-hours-after-sonar-use
http://www.orcasound.net/wp/2012/02/08/endangered-orcas-in-haro-strait-18-hours-after-sonar-use/#commentsWed, 08 Feb 2012 10:11:53 +0000http://www.orcasound.net/wp/?p=438Sounds of southern resident killer whales were detected late in the night on Monday (2/6/12), the same day that the Canadian frigate Ottawa used sonar in their U.S. critical habitat. The calls most often used by K and L pods were automatically detected first at the Orcasound hydrophone array (around 22:45) and then on the hydrophones at Lime Kiln State Park (23:04-23:14), suggesting that the pods were heading south during that period.

The calls recorded at Orcasound are interesting in part because they are audible over a continuously squeaking ship that has peak power in the frequency range of the calls. The most recognizable call in this set of detections is the S16 call which often indicates the presence of K pod.

The Lime Kiln recordings have much less ship noise. Many S19 calls are audible (indicating L pod may have been present), along with whistles, buzz trains, and some S10 calls. Around 23:11 the signal to noise ration is very good during a series of excited variable and S19 calls that are interspersed with echolocation clicks.

Jeanne’s recording (below) begins at 04:49 and ends at 05:39. 82 pings occur in the first 38.25 minutes of the recording, resulting in an average ping rate of 1 ping every 28.35 seconds. Extrapolating back to the first automated detection of a ping (at Lime Kiln) at 04:42:50, there were likely at least 14 pings emitted before Jeanne started recording. So, the minimum total number of pings emitted is 96.

This is the first detection of Canadian MFA sonar on our hydrophone network, and — to our knowledge — the first time Canadian sonar has been used in the U.S. critical habitat of the Southern Resident killer whales, an iconic marine mammal population that is listed as endangered on both sides of the border. While policies guiding Canadian Naval use of mid-frequency sonar in U.S. critical habitat are not clear to us, there is guidance on the web regarding Canadian use of Canadian Low Frequency Active (LFA) Sonar (at least in the Atlantic).

SQS 510 sonar on a Halifax hull (credit: hazegray.org)

As a start to evaluating the potential acoustic impacts of this incident, we report here on the preliminary hydrophone and vessel location data collected by the Network during this incident, including: human detections and recordings; automated detections and recordings; and AIS data logged at the Lime Kiln. We are also aggregating information from regional sighting and listening networks about species that may have been ensonified. As additional data and analyses become available, updates will be posted here. Authors of this analysis are bioacoustians: Jason Wood, Research Associate with The Whale Museum; and Scott Veirs, of Beam Reach Marine Science and Sustainability School.

Below are the compressed (mp3) recordings and coarse spectrograms of the sounds that were auto-detected this morning. They begin with a series of low frequency sounds and echoes that may have been from an impulsive source, like a detonation or explosion. Then the series of high-frequency pings occurs between 4:42:50 and 5:08:17 at three network locations: Lime Kiln (13 pings), Port Townsend (1), and Orcasound (1). While we are not yet sure if pings were detected at Neah Bay or on the NEPTUNE Canada hydrophones located near the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, it appears that the sonar ensonified a good portion of the eastern Strait of Juan de Fuca and southern Haro Strait.

First there were 4 detections of explosive sounds (3/12/2012 update: 5 detections)

Note of clarification added on 2/9/12 at 13:30: In the following table of audio recording files and spectrogram images, the “node” or hydrophone location is denoted with “lk” meaning Lime Kiln State Park, “os” meaning Orcasound (5 km north of Lime Kiln), and “pt” meaning Port Townsend Marine Science Center. The “dB” label offers an estimate of the 30-second average (RMS) received sound pressure level at the time the recording was triggered, and therefore should not be taken as an indication of the receive level of any particular sound heard within the recording (i.e. an explosion or sonar ping) The trigger label indicates whether the sound was recorded because it was exceptionally loud (“PWR”) or because it had the changing pitch and duration typical of a killer whale call (“PKT”).

3/12/2012 update — 1 Detection at Orcasound (~5km north of Lime Kiln)

3/12/2012 update — The Lime Kiln recordings were made from a single Reson TC4032 (on both channels in the stereo recordings). The single detection at Orcasound does not match the arrival times of auto-detected explosive-sounds at Lime Kiln within the few seconds that would warrant estimation of the bearing to the source (or at least suggest whether the source was north or south of the hydrophones. The only explanation for the distinct arrival times are: (1) the sound source was too faint to be detected at both locations; (2) the computer clocks were not synchronized to NIST (though software was installed to do so at all hydrophone network locations); or (3) (more likely) something caused the longer-term mean receive level to rise at LK or OS to the point that the PWR trigger threshold was exceeded only at the quieter location when a given explosive-like sound arrived.

Then there were 14 detections of sonar pings

Note of clarification added on 2/9/12 at 13:30: In the following table of audio recording files and spectrogram images, the “node” or hydrophone location is denoted with “lk” meaning Lime Kiln State Park, “os” meaning Orcasound (5 km north of Lime Kiln), and “pt” meaning Port Townsend Marine Science Center. The “dB” label offers an estimate of the 30-second average (RMS) received sound pressure level at the time the recording was triggered, and therefore should not be taken as an indication of the receive level of any particular sound heard within the recording (i.e. an explosion or sonar ping) The trigger label indicates whether the sound was recorded because it was exceptionally loud (“PWR”) or because it had the changing pitch and duration typical of a killer whale call (“PKT”).

While it is possible that other vessels were involved in the sounds recorded this morning, the location and public description of the Ottawa are consistent with what was heard. We are particularly curious about the source of the explosive sounds heard before the sonar pings.

AIS systems report that it was last in port in San Diego, has been operating in the north Pacific, and was bound for Esquimalt mid-morning today. The “show track” feature of marinetraffic.com revealed mid-day today this track from 21:15 2/5/12 through 08:52 this morning (2/6/12).

Track of the Ottawa into the Salish Sea

Ottawa's track in critical habitat

A rough chronology from combining acoustic detections and AIS data (Google spreadsheet embedded below) suggests the following sequence of events. After steaming through the night through the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the Ottawa slowed down near Race Rocks and turned into the waters south of Victoria. It then reacted — possibly to detonation-like sounds that were auto-recorded at Lime Kiln — and then changed speed and course, began pinging, crossed into U.S. waters, turned northward at near maximum speed, stopped pinging and slowed down as it crossed over Middle Bank, proceeded further north, and then turned back to return to the Canadian waters south of it’s home port of Esquimalt.

Our next steps are to estimate calibrated receive levels during the event and to gather more information about animals that may have been exposed to harmful sound levels. We may also attempt to estimate the approximate location of the explosive sounds.

]]>http://www.orcasound.net/wp/2012/01/05/early-morning-srkw-calls/feed/0California sea lions bark into hydrophoneshttp://www.orcasound.net/wp/2011/11/07/california-sea-lions-bark-into-hydrophones/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=california-sea-lions-bark-into-hydrophones
http://www.orcasound.net/wp/2011/11/07/california-sea-lions-bark-into-hydrophones/#commentsMon, 07 Nov 2011 21:06:32 +0000http://www.orcasound.net/wp/?p=301Early this morning, a couple hours before sunrise, the repeated barks of a California sea lion were recorded automatically on the Orcasound hydrophones. This is the first time I can recall California sea lions being recorded in Haro Strait. The automated detections (tabulated below) were recorded from 04:47:49-04:55:33 PST.

Jeanne Hyde was awoken by the sounds and recorded most of the event which included some loud (close?) barks and a few lower-frequency sounds — perhaps the barks of a more distant sea lion. Her continuous recording (04:49-04:57 PST) reveals that the sea lion made many calls in bursts of 1-3 (mostly 2) barks, for periods of 15-30 seconds, typically followed by a 5-10 second break that often included a low-frequency sound (like groans). Within each burst barks were separated by 0.4-0.5 seconds, while bursts were separated in a sequence by 0.5-0.7 seconds. After about 4 minutes of this barking pattern, there was a 100 second quiet period, followed by another 2.5 minutes of barking during which the intensity slowly fades.

During the burst sequences the mean calling rate was ~1.2 barks/second — a rate that is midway between the underwater bark rates of a calm (1.0 barks/second) and aggressive (1.4 barks/second) adult male California sea lion (Schusterman, 1977). This suggests the barking sea lion in Haro Strait was in a moderately energetic behavioral state. This barking rate is also the best evidence we have that the barking was happening underwater; Schusterman (1977) noted that the in-air barking rate for a given behavioral state was 2x the underwater rate, and ventured that this — combined with the rarity of bubbles being emitted — suggested the sea lions recycle their air during underwater barking!

The barks have strong harmonic structure with the fundamental ranging from 500-700 Hz. The groans are not harmonic and have most of their power between 300 and 800 Hz. Other recordings of California sea lions randomly found on the web seem to have bark fundamental frequency ranges that are a little lower (200-500 Hz for barks and 200-600 for groan from naturesongs.com). Perhaps this suggest that the sea lion this morning was not an adult, or was a female instead of a male?

There were no transient vocalizations or clicks auto-detected before or after the sea lion sounds, either at Orcasound or Lime Kiln (5 km to the south). It is fascinating to learn from Schusterman et al. (1972) that the audiogram of Zalophus californianus (shown below) is pretty flat and most sensitive from 500 Hz to 30 kHz, but then becomes much less sensitive very quickly near 35 kHz. This extension of their hearing sensitivity way beyond their bark and groan frequencies suggests there is strong natural selection for the ability to hear at the peak power frequencies of killer whale echolocation clicks (20-50 kHz).

California sea lion audiogram (Schusterman et al., 1972)

I didn’t find a lot from a quick web search for underwater sea lion barking, but there is this fun video with audio that sounds similar to our recordings: http://jackiehildering.smugmug.com/Animals/Steller-sea-lions/11380690_d8BPVm#!i=800065493&k=VbmZE Notice how the CA sea lion barks get a bit less intense when the animal in frame turns its head away from the camera. Filmed by Jackie Hildering off of Northern Vancouver Island, these sea lions are highly habituated to humans due to interactions at the local fish processing plant.

]]>http://www.orcasound.net/wp/2011/11/07/california-sea-lions-bark-into-hydrophones/feed/0Dawn chorus at Lime Kiln and Orcasoundhttp://www.orcasound.net/wp/2011/10/11/dawn-chorus-at-lime-kiln-and-orcasound/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=dawn-chorus-at-lime-kiln-and-orcasound
http://www.orcasound.net/wp/2011/10/11/dawn-chorus-at-lime-kiln-and-orcasound/#commentsTue, 11 Oct 2011 16:01:15 +0000http://www.orcasound.net/wp/?p=299Meg McDonald was first this morning (at 5:02 PST) to detect faint calls of southern resident killer whales at Lime Kiln. Val’s WhoListener program confirmed her report with detections from 504-555. There were plenty of clicks mixed in with the S2/3/16+ calls, so one might infer there was some fishing going on under the setting full moon. (Anyone have an underwater photograph of that?!)

Calls and more clicks were detected by WhoListener 46 minutes later at Orcasound (641-759). So I infer that the southern residents were traveling slowly north in Haro Strait without being spread out over more than a couple kilometers. (Orcasound is 5km north of Lime Kiln.)

The automated detections are tabulated below as spectrogram clips and short mp3 recordings. Let us know what calls you hear in the comments. My quick sampling suggested there were some variable calls that I don’t hear very often and am unsure about categorizing…

]]>http://www.orcasound.net/wp/2011/10/11/dawn-chorus-at-lime-kiln-and-orcasound/feed/1Superpod southbound since Stuarthttp://www.orcasound.net/wp/2011/10/05/superpod-southbound-since-stuart/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=superpod-southbound-since-stuart
http://www.orcasound.net/wp/2011/10/05/superpod-southbound-since-stuart/#commentsWed, 05 Oct 2011 23:35:36 +0000http://www.orcasound.net/wp/?p=291Yesterday (10/4/11) there were many southern resident killer whale calls automatically and manually detected and recorded on first the Orcasound hydrophones (82 detections from 14:34-16:08 PST) and then the Lime Kiln hydrophones (30 detections from 15:36-16:33). The spectograms and recordings are tabulated below. I heard a lot of S2, S16, and S19 calls along with many clicks. This is consistent with the reports of all three pods by John Boyd on Facebook.

The Beam Reach students observed the orcas at Turn Point at 12:45 (Latitude: 48.69506 Longitude: -123.23662) during a CTD cast. The whales traveled south and southeast, pretty spread out. Meg McDonald heard them first at Orcasound at 14:34 and Lon Brockelhurst reported calls at Lime Kiln at 15:09, and at both Orcasound and Lime Kiln at 16:10.

A continuous recording of the Orcasound hydrophone stream was made by Scott Veirs. A continuous recording of the Lime Kiln north array (4 channels for localization, including one hydrophone with high-frequency response) was made remotely by Jason Wood.

Meg McDonald was the first to hear echolocation clicks and calls of southern resident killer whales this morning at 6:37. The automated detectors at Lime Kiln also recorded calls or clicks from 6:38 through 9:23. See below for a catalog of the automated spectrograms and recordings, which include many S2 calls and some S4s suggesting the J and L pods may be present. Faint calls are still being heard on occasion as this post is typed (~9:45).

This evidence of foraging is interesting in part because it suggests the orcas may have been some of the first fishers to catch some Fraser kings in the Einar Nielsen Becky Barr Fishing Classic which began today at dawn and is based out of Roche Harbor on San Juan Island. The Classic is named in part for San Juan Islander Einar who died of a heart attack while hauling in a hawg near Kellett Bluff. Follow what salmon get caught over the weekend at http://www.enbbfishingclassic.com/ and their Facebook page.

]]>http://www.orcasound.net/wp/2011/09/29/first-catches-of-the-einar-nielsen-becky-barr-fishing-classic/feed/0Calling in a 40-knot stormhttp://www.orcasound.net/wp/2011/09/26/calling-in-a-40-knot-storm/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=calling-in-a-40-knot-storm
http://www.orcasound.net/wp/2011/09/26/calling-in-a-40-knot-storm/#commentsMon, 26 Sep 2011 22:15:44 +0000http://www.orcasound.net/wp/?p=279It’s really piping today in Haro Strait. The plot (above) from the NOAA buoy at Hein Bank (south Haro Strait) suggests the killer whales have been traveling this morning through a sea swept by winds that are steady at 25-30 knots (nautical miles per hour) and gusting to 41! I’d surmised that it wasn’t worth listening to the nearby hydrophones for killer whale calls and clicks, but my gut was telling me otherwise. Besides, the Beam Reach students weren’t going to be able to bring their boat out in such wind for research anyway…

5-day weather in Haro Strait (Hein Bank)

Sure enough, when I checked email at 14:30 there were many notifications from Val’s automatic detection software — both at Lime Kiln and then at Orcasound. The spectrograms and links to the recordings are appended. Does anyone recognize any of the calls?

The SRKW calls (including S2/3/4/19/42) were auto-detected at Lime Kiln from 1255-1313 and then at Orcasound (5 km to the north) from 1319-1345. During that period the tidal currents (predicted at Kellett Bluff, about 2 km north of Orcasound) went from starting to flood to near max flood (peak was at 1430).